Vantiv Prices IPO At Midpoint Of Range

3/21/2012 11:38 PM ET

Payment processor Vantiv, Inc. (VNTV) said Wednesday that it has priced the initial public offering of 29.41 million shares of its Class A common stock at $17 per share, at the mid-point of the company's estimated range of $16 to $18 per share.

The Cincinnati, Ohio-based company said that its common stock will trade on the New York stock exchange under the ticker symbol "VNTV."

Vantiv and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 4.41 million shares to cover over-allotments, if any.

The company plans to contribute all of the net proceeds to Vantiv Holding, which will use the net proceeds to repay $460.8 million of the company's existing senior secured credit facilities.

However, the company will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

Vantiv was spun off from Cincinnati, Ohio-based regional bank Fifth Third Bancorp. (FITB) in June 2009. Private equity firm Advent International Corp. currently holds a 51 percent stake in Vantiv, while Fifth Third holds a 49 percent stake.

In 2011, Vantiv's profit increased 65 percent from the prior year to $36.24 million, while revenue rose 40 percent to $1.62 billion.

According to the Nilson Report, Vantiv is the third-largest merchant acquirer and the largest PIN debt acquirer by transaction volume.

The report also notes that personal consumption expenditures in the U.S. using cards and other electronic payments reached $4.48 trillion in 2009 and are projected to reach $7.23 trillion in 2015. This represents a compound annual growth rate of about 8 percent during the period.

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